FSB Raids Home of Elderly Father of Navalny Ally Amid Extremism Investigation

Leonid Volkov, a close associate of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, revealed that agents from the Federal Security Service (FSB) conducted a search at the residence of his elderly father in Yekaterinburg, located in the Ural Mountains, early on Thursday.

State-controlled news agency TASS, referencing unnamed police sources, reported that 69-year-old Mikhail Volkov may be facing criminal allegations related to funding an «extremist» organization.

Sources claim that Volkov senior is accused of transferring funds to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was designated as «extremist» by Russian authorities in 2021, leaving employees, volunteers, and supporters vulnerable to legal action.

A Telegram news channel affiliated with the Russian government shared a brief video depicting FSB agents delivering documents to the 69-year-old, although the nature of these documents remained uncertain. The channel purported that he had been taken into custody.

Leonid Volkov refuted the claims of his father’s arrest on Thursday, stating that law enforcement had merely conducted a search of his father’s residence and seized electronic devices as part of an ongoing investigation.

The exiled activist expressed uncertainty regarding any potential charges against his father, a retired mathematics professor.

However, should the reports of Volkov senior’s arrest be verified, it would represent the first instance of Russian authorities applying anti-extremism laws to target relatives of those allied with Navalny, as noted by the investigative news outlet Agentstvo.

At 44 years old, Volkov has been living outside of Russia since Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated as «extremist» in 2021. In March 2024, he experienced a brief hospitalization following an assault with a hammer near his residence in Lithuania.